Utah State Theatre presents: ‘The Moors’
The Utah State Theatre is performing “The Moors,” a dark comedy about love and despair by Jen Silverman on Feb. 11-12 and 15-18 in the Caine Lyric Theatre.
There is an audience warning due to adult humor and content, sexual themes and scenes of violence.
The play takes place in the 1840s English moorland where two sisters, a dog and a maid live. A governess comes along, thinking she has an invitation from the sister’s brother, to take care of a baby, but neither the brother nor baby are present.
“The students have done an absolutely amazing job with this material. They’ve found the quirky humor while contrasting that with a touch of horror,” said Paul Mitri, the director and department head for theater. “Our students here are giving it their own unique personalities and spin on the characters.”
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and youth, $8 for USU faculty and free for USU students with their student ID.
USU Acting BFA junior Bailee Minor (left) and sophomore Brynn Francis (right) rehearse on Feb. 2 for their upcoming performance of The Moors.
There are six leading actors. Agatha is played by Bailee Miner, Marjorie is played by McKenna Walwyn, Emilie is played by Nicole Frederick, Huldey is played by Brynn Francis, Moor Hen is played by Ollie Chieppa and Jack Carter is playing Mastiff.
The actors said they are excited to take on the role of their characters — it’s a chance to step into a different world and someone else’s life.
“I’ve enjoyed coming to understand her more in depth and learn what it is like for her to live in me,” said Miner, who is a USU junior.
Frederick, a junior in the BFA acting program, has enjoyed all of the new experiences she has gained from being a part of this production. Unlike other shows she has been a part of where a lot of time is spent on table work, “The Moors” allowed Frederick to jump right into learning characters.
“We focused on embodying our characters and specifying their movement: habituations, hand gestures, how they sit or stand, what animal they relate to, etcetera,” Frederick said. “This has been extremely rewarding because of how easily I feel I can connect to my character and fulfill their wishes within the play.”
Stage manager Jordan Lockwood focuses on organizing and assisting in the production process. During shows, she also calls cues and makes sure everything is running properly.
“I see that both technicians and actors have a voice and their ideas and concerns are heard,” Lockwood said.
The play was chosen to be performed around December 2020, in hopes of school being back in-person. The design process began last spring and has continued to be worked on through this fall.
“Ultimately, to me, the play is about how people might try to escape their nature but can’t,” Mitri said. “I’m very curious about how the audience will respond. Like “The Moors,” things are not always what they seem.”
Auditions were held in November, with one team meeting before Christmas break and rehearsals started the first day of spring semester.
Rehearsals are scheduled Monday through Friday 6-10 p.m. and held for four hours on Saturdays. Cast members are called to rehearsals depending on which scenes they are working on that day. Since they have a smaller cast, most cast members are present for every rehearsal.
USU Acting BFA junior Bailee Minor (left) and sophomore Brynn Francis (right) rehearse on Feb. 2 for their upcoming performance of The Moors.
“Both the most exciting and rewarding, yet difficult part of preparing is all the fun physical things I get to do,” Francis said. “We have some crazy fight choreography, I get to use a trap door, there’s lots of jumping, spinning, dancing and throwing myself on furniture all while wearing a corset.”
Due to the coronavirus, there have been several complications with rehearsals. Since there was a positive test amongst the team, production wore masks for a while, and everybody had to test negative before attending rehearsal. Frederick says the cast is very grateful for the understudies and all the work they have done to be able to jump in when needed.
“It’s one thing to watch the work happen versus being part of the work happening onstage,” Frederick said. “We talk as a group to decide what course of action is best moving forward, but it still hurts a bit to be released from a run of the show.”
Lockwood is most excited to see everyone’s hard work come together on opening night.
“As a stage manager, I have had the privilege of witnessing the creative process firsthand. I have seen the actors bring their characters to life and the technicians’ renderings become a reality,” Lockwood said.